Telematic communication units (TCU's) such as cellular phones, person data assistants (PDA's), Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, and on-board Vehicle Communication Units (VCU's), used in conjunction with a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as a cellular telephone network or a satellite communication system, have made it possible for a person to send and receive voice communications, data transmissions, and facsimile messages from virtually anywhere on earth. Such communication can be initiated at the TCU when it is turned on, or by entering a phone number to be called, or in many cases, by speaking a voice command to an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), causing the TCU to automatically complete the process of dialing the number to be called.
A current problem with speech recognition systems is one of premature enunciation by users. Such users of speech recognition systems give voice commands to the speech recognition system before the system is ready to receive the command. A current speech recognition system, after its activation by a user, plays back a prompt stating that it is ready. A short time after the ready prompt, the speech recognition system begins a listening period during which it is able to receive and record commands. However, a considerable amount of users will begin saying commands before the speech recognition system has started the listening period. Such premature enunciators will usually hear a generic error response of “Slower Please” from the speech recognition system, followed by the system replaying the ready prompt. For such users it becomes very annoying and time consuming to listen to the “Slower Please” error message all the time. Thus, there is a significant need for a method and system for improving speech recognition for premature enunciation that overcomes the above disadvantages and shortcomings, as well as other disadvantages.